Anyone entering the UK will be required to take a PCR test…

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Viewing 15 posts - 121 through 135 (of 136 total)

  • MartynSinclair
    Participant

    I need to let some steam off …

    Just prepping my paperwork for my return to UK, arriving Thursday morning…. Thought it was bad outbound….

    1. Test to fly PCR test from a testing centre in BKK – could only book the test once I had supplied a copy of my passport, flight details, home address in the UK, via email to the testing centre. Even though I am not 100% convinced I need it – I am having it just in case. Cost ca. £80

    2. UK locator form, cant even start that until 48 hours before departure – cost is free

    3. Registering my UK arrival day 2 PCR test – another ridiculous set of repeated questions that you only realise you cant complete the form, until have arrived back in the UK, until the form is nearly completed. You need to confirm an arrival date and only today and past dates can be entered. This was only evident 50% of the way through the form. – cost £80

    I have zero issue with taking any test. BUT the ridiculous and complex amount of duplicated paperwork is just bonkers. I am travelling as a solo business traveller, but I can’t imagine a family of 4 getting their heads around this ludicrous system. Yes there is a need for testing, I get that, but for goodness sake, please allow us to prepare the documents in advance and stop all this duplication of data.

    Is this the way to increase confidence in flying again (being asked on another thread)?… find a way to complete whatever tests are needed, in a cost effective, PRACTICAL way and MEANINGFUL way.

    The actual flying part is really very EASY and SAFE….

    4 users thanked author for this post.

    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    MartynSinclair, maybe it is just BKK. My wife and I are heading to the UK on Thursday from Spain. Because of the introduction of the PCR 2 day test I changed our flight from Birmingham to Est Midlands to use the Randox Airport Drive Through facility. Being so close to Xmas getting the kit by post and back to Randox and getting the results back by midnight on Christmas Eve I saw being a challenge. The booking was straightforward as was the amendment I had to make. All it needs now is for the flight to be punctual


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Thank you CathayLoyalist2 – I was trying to be practical and sensible with the day 2 test, as I pre ordered the day 2 kit and it is with me in my case. However, I am not allowed to register the test in advance of my arrival, even though Randox already have my details (and from several other tests). I have no issue with taking the test, but would have thought I could have completed the online bit, BEFORE i depart from BKK, instead of having to faff around filling out forms in the arrival hall at T5 after my flight.

    Also with the airport testing centre’s how flexible are they if your flight is badly delayed.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    [postquote quote=1174965]
    Martyn, one has to question who in their right mind will want to travel at the moment due to the minute by minute changes taking place across the globe as everyone goes into panic mode over a variant of a virus we were “supposed to be living with” and in most cases have been vaccinated 3 times against?

    Th paperwork the stress and sometimes the change rules just dont make it feasible just yet… and that’s coming from someone who would and has got on a plane through troubled times

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    [postquote quote=1176682]

    Martyn, as for the airports testing flexibility that is down to what appointment slots they have available up to 6.30pm when this one closes. At the moment there is plenty of availability in the afternoon

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    SimonS1
    Participant

    Came back from Luxembourg last week and found it straightforward. Dropped my PCR in the Randox drop box near Crawley at 10am Saturday and had the results 24 hours later. £59 I think.


    Boaz Xavier
    Participant

    Thanks, Tom for this.

    The number of cases is increasing rapidly again. So it’s our responsibility to do the PCR test. They are not doing any PCR test for the people who are already vaccinated. But I think It should be done for all. Anyone entering the UK will have to do a PCR test. and this should be made compulsory.

    Otherwise, it’s us who will have to face the consequences. What I think is every passenger should be located and done the test. Just like other institutions manage login portals such as elogin.

    Covid login portal should be managed where we all can manage the records and concerned authorities can access that portal if required. It would be easier to know each detail.


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    This would be more environmentally-friendly, and much much less expensive

    Business scents opportunity for use of Covid sniffer dogs in UK
    Canines could soon be deployed at airports after study shows they are better at detecting infection than lateral flow tests

    Following on from the Helsinki Airport test

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/close-to-100-accuracy-airport-enlists-sniffer-dogs-to-test-for-covid-19

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    GivingupBA
    Participant

    Sniffer dogs? Allow me to tell my amusing (to me at least) sniffer dog story….. a number of years ago I arrived at Seoul airport. On the way to the exit, just before Customs, a police officer appeared with a sniffer dog. I had a couple of rolls of salami inside my wheelie bag. The dog went absolutely beserk and rushed over to my bag, yelping repeatedly and leaping up and down on top of my bag and climbing all over it with huge interest… it would not stop… passengers around me were all staring at me and my bag (I thought “OH no, rumbled”). But the police officer looked extremely bored, just yanked the dog off, and walked away out of sight with the dog.

    So what happened? I later figured out that the dog must have been trained to display a different reaction to actual contraband / banned / illicit substances – and had not shown that reaction. And the officer had therefore guessed there was ‘nothing to see here’.

    5 users thanked author for this post.

    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Looks like it could be scrapped today (presumably for the weekend…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/travel-latest-covid-restrictions-2022-holiday-pcr-test/

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Ireland changes the rules

    Ireland Set to Drop Covid Test for Vaccinated Arrivals

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    [postquote quote=1195365]

    Yes, that is a normal reaction for dogs. He wanted the salami. Many years ago we used to sell used shoes in bales to West Africa. I had a supplier in Wales who we had helped financially and I went to examine the latest pile he had. About 7,000 pairs of men’s and women’s heaped up ready to sort and pack in 50 kgs bales.

    3 customs vans then turned up unannounced and asked if they could use the shoes to train four dogs in sniffing for drugs. With the dogs out of sight the drugs were planted and each dog was bought in separately and sure enough within seconds each one found the hidden drugs. I can’t recall the signal they used, I think it was to bark, wag tail vigorously and sort of point. Then they showed us how they would reward the dogs, and they hid the favorite snack / reward in the shoes. The dogs went berserk diving in and trying to dig out the snack – so very different to how they behaved when finding the drugs.

    As a PS. In South Africa the dogs are also used to sniff out German sausages and meat products which mainly German tourists bring in. This makes for very happy dogs as well as very happy customs officers 😉

    5 users thanked author for this post.

    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Well that’s something

    Pre-departure tests for travel to England be removed

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    GivingupBA
    Participant

    LuganoPirate, thanks very much for your reply and your mention of my experience being “a normal reaction for dogs”, and confirmation about dogs’ reaction to hidden meat, that is all very interesting. (I’ve never had a dog, so am not familiar with their ways). And no doubt to me about why the police officer in my case just walked off with the dog instead of pulling me aside for examination – he knew dogs, apparently.

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    The above is excellent news for both leisure and business travellers wishing to enter the borders of the UK, or is just England?

    On the same day that HKG decides to ban travellers altogether from 8 countries and is considering increasing Government detention times for their returning nationals. Still virtually impossible for business people to enter many parts of Asia without formal Government detentions.

    2 years into the pandemic and no end in sight for any form of joint international solutions for travel to restart. How on earth the Chinese are going to manage the winter Olympics is going to be interesting.

    3 users thanked author for this post.
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